1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns the operation of peeling vegetable products such as corn, grains, berries, or cereals having a kernel in a protective envelope.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The known methods for peeling or decorticating cereal seeds or the like usually consist of submitting the seeds to mechanical efforts in order to break the hulls. According to one known method, the seeds are passed between two cylinders rotating at different speeds, separating the hull from the kernel by mechanical friction. According to another known method, the cereal seeds are accelerated (for example centrifugally) and projected against a wall so that the seed hulls are broken upon impact.
One of the main drawbacks of apparatus carrying out one of these known mechanical methods is that the percentage of kernels broken is much too high. For example, in an apparatus consisting of two rotary cylinders, it is impossible to adjust the distance between the cylinders in a satisfactory manner. This is because a given type of cereal has seeds of varying sizes. Therefore, either the distance between the cylinders is fixed to limit the percentage of broken kernels, in which case, the smallest seeds are not peeled; or the distance is adjusted to peel and decorticate all the seeds and in this case, the biggest kernels are all broken.
In an apparatus using centrifugation and projection, there is the same impossibility of obtaining both a high percentage of peeled seeds and a low percentage of broken kernels; the kernels have a tendency to be broken on impact with the walls.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to avoid these drawbacks and to provide a pneumatic device using a new method for completely peeling or decorticating seeds or cereal seeds without breaking the seed kernels.